The next time they all gathered in the warded room where Nephrite and Jadeite were staying, Rei couldn't help but be unsettled by everything that had happened. After so many of the people carrying Rainbow Crystals had been transformed into youma, seeing that her grandpa was one of those people was one of the worst possible things that could have happened. The sight of both Usagi-chan and Jadeite throwing themselves at her feet brought Rei's thoughts back from where they had been dragged by the thought of what was entirely too likely to happen to her grandfather.

"Rei-chan, I'll do everything I can to make sure that your grandpa stays safe!"

"And I'll see to it that Zoisite doesn't have the chance to attack your grandfather at all," Jadeite promised. "Even if I have to reveal myself to Beryl to do it."

"Thank you, both of you, for your consideration," Rei said, feeling more settled than she had since learning that Zoisite was going to be after the only family that Rei could truly say she had. "But, I don't want you to reveal yourself unless you have to, Jadeite."

"Yeah," Mako-chan said, moving closer to where Jadeite and Usagi-chan were both sitting. "You and Nephrite would be in even more danger than Rei-chan's grandpa if Beryl finds out that you escaped her!"

"That may be, but the fact remains that I have the chance to atone for at least some of the things I've done to you," Jadeite said, a determined look on his face. "Please, let me."

Sighing, Rei frowned. "All right, just as long as you make sure that Zoisite can't find his way back to this room. I don't want you getting in any more trouble than you can avoid."

"Of course," Jadeite said, a look of relief on his face. "Thank you, Miss Rei."

"Sure," she said, standing and making her way out of the hidden room.

More than anything at the moment, Rei needed to be alone.

She needed to think, needed to find a way to stop Grandpa from suffering a fate that none of the other Rainbow Crystal holders had yet been able to avoid. What she didn't need was to find Zoisite himself attacking Grandpa under the light of a full moon. But there he was, surrounded by the sakura petals that always appeared whenever he teleported anywhere, bearing down on Grandpa where he sat under the moonlight.

Transforming as soon as she'd managed to spot Zoisite's approach, Rei called the rest of the Senshi to support her, and turned back to face Zoisite again.

~SM~

"Fire Soul!"

The sound of a girl's voice drew his attention, just as the strange man appeared in the sky amid a shower of sakura petals. The flames that knocked the strange man backwards through the air led back to the form of what seemed to be a young girl in a short, red skirt. But, for some reason, Hideyoshi found himself with the strange feeling that he knew the girl in the red skirt. As more girls in short, colorful skirts – and what seemed to be a pair of boys in capes and evening wear – all appeared at the temple beside him, each and every one of them clearly aiming to protect him from the strange man who seemed determined to attack him, Hideyoshi couldn't help but wonder what was happening.

He wondered if the man could be an evil spirit, or if he was dealing with some kind of a corrupted practitioner of spiritual arts; both would be bad, but Hideyoshi had to confess that the latter would be more unsettling to him, personally.

"Zoisite!" another man's voice shouted, just before what seemed to be that very man appeared and began attacking… whatever kind of being Zoisite truly was.

Watching the two of them attack each other, Hideyoshi noticed that the pair of them actually seemed to know each other, if the way they were shouting at each other was any indication. When the girl in the short, red skirt grabbed Hideyoshi and pulled him out of the way of… what looked like some unsettling kind of talisman, Hideyoshi found himself actually feeling more relaxed. He didn't know what to think, at least until he'd managed to see through whatever kind of power had been disguising his rescuer.

"Rei!" Hideyoshi exclaimed, though he exclaimed quietly, so that Zoisite – whoever he truly was – wouldn't hear him.

"What? How-? I mean, I don't know what you're talking about, sir," Rei said, and Hideyoshi couldn't quite manage to smother a chuckle.

Rei was always so serious about everything that he couldn't quite help but find it funny, even in spite of the battle he could hear happening behind him.

When the pair of them made it to the room that Rei had been so determined to keep him out of for such a long time, Hideyoshi found himself more than a little intrigued. Especially when he saw the man with the long, chesnut hair coming out of the clearly heavily-warded room.

~SM~

"Nephrite, keep him safe while the rest of us deal with Zoisite," she said, shoving Grandpa into the room where Nephrite and Jadeite had been hiding from the Dark Kingdom ever since Nephrite and Trevor-kohai had come back from rescuing Jadeite.

"Of course," Nephrite said, ushering Grandpa into the room and quickly closing the door behind them.

Sighing, knowing that Grandpa would be safer than any of them as long as Zoisite was attacking, Rei hurried back out. By the time she'd arrived, however, Makoto-chan had blasted the space where Zoisite had once been standing, only for Zoisite to teleport out again just before any lightning could hit him. Ami-chan had laid down a barrier of her Bubble Spray during the time that Rei had been escorting Grandpa into the room that she had warded against any scrying attempts by Beryl and the Dark Kingdom, so she felt better about hurrying Jadeite back to the room where he, Nephrite, and now Grandpa were all staying than she would have otherwise.

Once she finally did make it back to the warded room, she found Grandpa actually talking to Nephrite.

"Rei-chan, your friend told me that-" Grandpa started to say, just before Ami-chan and Trevor-kohai made their way into the room alongside them.

"We found a boy about our age out on the steps," Trevor-kohai said, sounding a bit breathless after everything that had happened.

"He didn't get hurt during the battle, but he's still a bit shaken up," Ami-chan said, once Trevor-kohai had fallen silent, clearly more curious about what had happened to bring Grandpa to meet Nephrite in the first place.

"Well, I'm glad to see that Rei-chan has such good friends, but I suppose I should get to meeting that new boy and finding out what he wants," Grandpa said, turning away from Nephrite and making his way out of the room.

"Rei-sempai, your grandfather…"

"Yeah, he seems to have found out who I am, somehow," she said, when Trevor-kohai trailed off, not quite seeming to know what else to say.

She'd have to talk to Grandpa, to find out just what it was that Nephrite had told him, just how many of the Sailor Senshi's secrets Nephrite had told him, and just how she was going to have to deal with things from now on.

~SM~

Yuichiro Kumano hadn't been quite sure where he was actually going when he left his house and his rich family behind, but finding himself suddenly in the middle of what seemed to be a fight had startled him right out of the little sleep that he'd managed to get. Still, finding himself pulled into the shrine building whose steps he'd ended up sleeping on was more than a little surprising, especially considering that he'd been pulled inside by some guy wearing a top hat, a tuxedo, and a cape of all things.

Settling himself down at the table he'd been left at, Yuichiro drank the green tea he'd been offered and had some of the snacks that someone had been nice enough to bring out for him. Everyone had been moving around so fast that he hadn't glimpsed much more than the outlines of everyone moving around, and now that Yuichiro had found himself alone, he could only wonder where everyone else had gone. He knew that there had been people at the temple, since they'd all been fighting off whoever had been attacking them.

But now, sitting alone with his green tea, Yuichiro could only wonder what – if anything – was going to happen to him next.

~SM~

Finding out that Nephrite had told her grandfather basically all he knew about the Dark Kingdom, the Moon Kingdom, and how the Sailor Senshi themselves fit into their present situation hadn't been something Rei would have ever expected, and she didn't know how Luna-sensei in particular would react to finding out about that. The cat hadn't been particularly impressed with Naru-chan finding out, but Naru-chan was also an ordinary person, and she'd also fallen in love with Nephrite while he was still working for the Dark Kingdom.

So, a lot of Luna-sensei's displeasure might have been from that, really.

When she and Grandpa made their way to the table where the boy – Yuichiro Kumano, according to Ami-chan – was sitting, the first words out of his mouth were to ask Grandpa to take him on as an apprentice. Rei didn't quite know what to make of him. Still, the fact that he'd first looked at her before he'd said a word gave Rei the distinct feeling that he wasn't particularly interested in the spiritual aspects of what Grandpa did; he just seemed to be interested in her, honestly.

The next day, even after school, Rei found Yuichiro hanging around at the shrine. He and Grandpa were working together, though when Yuichiro caught another glimpse of her, he tried to hurry over to where she was standing. Grandpa quickly grabbed Yuichiro by the collar of his shirt and dragged him back over to where he was working to create wards around the shrine.

"Welcome home, Rei-chan!" Grandpa called, smiling widely as he continued hanging more of the anti-scrying wards around the shrine.

"Your grandpa seems really calm about everything, Rei-sempai," Trevor-kohai said, once Grandpa had left with Yuichiro dragged along behind him.

"That's probably because he thinks he's going to get to spend more time with all of us, considering what Nephrite told him," she said, sighing in the fond sort of annoyance she'd felt for Grandpa ever since she'd learned what kind of a pervert he was.

"Well, that is one reason," Grandpa called, grinning as he made his way back to where the group of them were standing. "Getting to know all of you cute kids is definitely a perk!" then, before Rei or anyone could say anything in response to that, though, Grandpa became serious again. "Still, now that I know the danger you kids have been getting into for so long, I'm going to make this place somewhere you can actually be safe," he said determinedly, holding up the bundle of ofuda he'd been steadily hanging up all around the shrine. "You've all done good work on your down, don't get me wrong, but…" Grandpa's eyes narrowed, making him look more serious than Rei had seen him look since the night he'd been forced to fight against Zoisite; the night so much had changed for them all. "None of you kids should have had to deal with this on your own."

"We haven't really been alone, Grandpa," Usagi-chan said, speaking for the first time since all of them had gathered together at the Hikawa Shrine.

"That cat of yours might very well be a good advisor to all of you kids, but you have all been having to fight on your own. And kids your age shouldn't have to do that," Grandpa said, looking sad and stern for a long time.

"Thanks for thinking of us, Grandpa!" Usagi-chan called, waving and sounding as cheerfully oblivious as she ever did.

Rei could only sigh, knowing that Grandpa was bound and determined to help them all, no matter how much danger it would put him in from Zoisite; and possibly Kunzite, though none of the Sailor Senshi had seen him yet. She couldn't help wondering just when they would, and if it would only be after they somehow managed to free Zoisite from the Dark Kingdom, too. She also wondered how they were going to even manage something like that in the first place.

Nephrite had been the one to actually come to them, and he'd worked with Trevor-kohai to rescue Jadeite, but Zoisite was clearly different than Nephrite, so Rei still found herself wondering about him; she still found herself wondering just what would happen next.

~SM~

When she and Trevor-nii made it back home, Usagi settled down on her bed with a happy sigh.

"Trevor-nii, do you think we should tell Mom and Dad what's happening, too?" she asked, thinking about the way Rei-chan had reacted to her grandpa finding out about Nephrite-kun, Jadeite-kun, and the Sailor Senshi as a whole.

"I don't think they could help, Usa-ko," Trevor-nii said, sitting down on the bed beside her. "I think knowing something like that would only worry them."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," she said, sighing softly as Trevor-nii wrapped his right arm around her shoulders.

Really, even Shingo-chan would probably worry about them, if he ever found out what was happening.

As the pair of them shared a plate of daifuku, Usagi found herself wondering if Jadeite-kun would enjoy them. Nephrite-kun seemed to enjoy the chocolate parfaits that Naru-chan shared with him, but Jadeite-kun didn't seem to have anyone to share candy and treats with.

"Trevor-nii, do you think Jadeite-kun would enjoy sharing these daifuku with us?" she asked, once she'd finished one of them.

"I don't know if he'd enjoy having sweets, Usa-ko," Trevor-nii said, as the pair of them settled around the small table with the bowl of daifuku. "I don't know if they even have sweets in the Dark Kingdom, really."

"I think we should share it with him," she said, picking up the bowl of daifuku and beginning to make her way out of the house.

"Usa-ko, wait!"

~SM~

Hurrying to catch up with Usagi, as his younger sister headed off determinedly for the Hikawa Shrine again, Trevor found himself wondering if the Dark Kingdom did have sweets at all. Shoving those thoughts out of his head, Trevor didn't have time to do much more than grab Usagi and pull her out of the way as Zoisite suddenly attacked them.

"Well, well," Zoisite said, clearly pleased. "We just seem to keep running into each other, don't we, schoolboy?"

Throwing himself out of the way of another of Zoisite's attacks, Trevor looked up as he saw Nephrite-san and Jadeite-san came racing out, alongside Rei-sempai as Sailor Mars.

"Get somewhere safe, you two!" Rei-sempai said, directing him and Usagi away from the fight that was breaking out.

"Right, thank you!" he called back, as he grabbed Usagi and pulled her away, reaching into his gakuran for the yellow rose he carried with him.

Once he and Usagi were out of sight, the both of them transformed and turned to head back into battle with Zoisite. He didn't know just where Rei-sempai's grandfather was, but he hoped the man was safe. Trevor hoped that he wasn't going to be turned into the same kind of youma that all the rest of the Rainbow Crystal carriers had been. As he and Usagi joined up with Rei-sempai, Nephrite, and Jadeite, Trevor took a deep breath and focused.

~SM~

The sound of battle drew Hideyoshi's attention, just as he had been working on more of the anti-scrying wards that Rei-chan had described to him, and he turned to the door of his workroom. Chewing on his lower lip for a long moment, recalling everything Rei-chan had told him – about the Rainbow Crystals, the youma that had been either contained inside them, and the way that Zoisite had been hunting the seven of them down – but also worrying about what might be happening to his granddaughter.

Knowing about Rei-chan and the rest of the Sailor Senshi was one thing, but hearing her fighting…

Standing up from his work table, Hideyoshi grabbed a fistful of ofuda and headed determinedly into the night, following the sounds of combat as it continued to happen. Since he'd managed to determine that Rei-chan was Sailor Mars, he'd begun being able to determine the identities of the other Sailor Senshi. He knew that the boy in the tuxedo and the short, yellow-lined cape was Rei-chan's friend Trevor-kun. He also knew that the girl in the blue skirt with the odangos in her hair was Trevor-kun's sister Usagi-chan.

He didn't know quite who the short-haired girl in the blue skirt, or the girl with the ponytail in the green skirt were, but Hideyoshi hadn't really met many of Rei-chan's friends yet.

The sight of Zoisite standing in the air – even as Trevor-kun and Rei-chan tried to bring him down with that same kind of fire attack, and a brace of thrown roses, of all things – nearly brought him up short, but Hideyoshi pushed his surprise aside and concentrated on repelling Zoisite. Working with Rei-chan and her friends, Hideyoshi sighed in relief as Zoisite vanished amid that same swirl of sakura petals he'd arrived in the first time.

He'd called Nephrite and Jadeite traitors before he'd left, so Hideyoshi knew he'd have something else to discus with the pair of them, once they'd gotten this whole business with the Rainbow Crystal inside him. Helping Rei-chan and her friends to set up a ritual space inside the main building of the temple, Hideyoshi settled himself down in the warded circle and breathed deeply to prepare himself for what would soon be coming. Nephrite-san had said that there was no way to stop a Rainbow Crystal holder from becoming a youma once their Crystal had been taken from them, and so Hideyoshi had done everything he could to prepare for that.

Looking up at Usagi-chan, he nodded to Rei-chan's friend.

~SM~

"Moon Healing Escalation!" she shouted, once Nephrite-kun had extracted his Rainbow Crystal and he turned into the second-last of the seven youma they were going to have to fight against.

And then to help, hopefully before Zoisite could get to those poor people.

Once Rei-chan's Grandpa had been healed again, Usagi allowed herself to relax for the first time in awhile. Then, once everyone was okay, Usagi turned to Jadeite-kun with a smile.

"Jadeite-kun, I brought some daifuku," she said. "Would you like to share it with us?"

"What's daifuku?" Jadeite-kun asked, seeming confused but like he was willing to try something new, just to see if he'd enjoy it.

"Oh, they're delicious!" she said, grinning widely as she took Jadeite-kun's right hand, guiding him back to the room where she had put the bowl of daifuku that she and Trevor-nii had started sharing before they'd come to Rei-chan's shrine to save her Grandpa from Zoisite. "Come on, we can all eat them together! Come on!"

Laughing as she pulled Jadeite-kun along behind her, Usagi smiled as Rei-chan and her Grandpa came along with her and Trevor-nii and Jadeite-kun. It would be so nice to just sit down and have some daifuku, after everything that had happened. Not just today, but ever since she'd become Sailor Moon and met Rei-chan and the other Sailor Senshi to begin with. She knew that it was important to have fun and enjoy life, just as much as it was to protect people from the Dark Kingdom.

Nephrite-kun was probably learning that from Naru-chan, but Jadeite-kun didn't have anyone to teach him that but her.